Thankful Beyond Words

I need to start this story with the happy ending.  Ashton is 100% fine today, but we know full well this story could have had a different ending if it had not been for the courageous act

 of a complete stranger named James.

This is exactly the point of Ashton's fall.  Amazingly, we were already this high in 12 seconds.

We enjoyed a beautiful family ski day at Brianhead Ski Resort last Sunday.  Many times throughout the day we said, "Isn't this wonderful?  What a perfect family day!"  Then at 3:30 we got on a chairlift and experienced complete terror.  Dad and Aidan got on first.  Ashton and I were right behind them.  Right out of the gate, Ashton didn't line up right and I found myself pulling him up and shouting, "He's not on!  He's not on!"  For some reason the attendant didn't notice and we quickly rose to 20 feet off the ground with me screaming and Ashton slipping until I only had his shoulders and I knew he was going to slip from my mittens.  I kept screaming while totally shocked about how quickly our perfect day had gone wrong. I could hear people screaming to me, but I honestly couldn't process a word of it.  Thankfully a good samaritan ran beneath us and caught Ashton the moment he fell.  The ground was very hard...it hasn't snowed up there in nearly 3 weeks.  We are so thankful that this man took action and risked his own safety to save our son from a horrible impact. The lift apparently doesn't go in reverse.  So after watching our son fall 20 feet into a stranger's arms we had to ride the chair the whole way up not knowing the extent of the fall.  When we got to him he was very shaken and complaining of leg pain.  X-rays confirmed some swelling, but no broken bones.  We kept him home from school Monday to rest from the event, but he was bouncing all around the house by noon and felt his mandatory hooky day was silly.  Thank God for James, Ashton now has an interesting story to tell his grandchildren someday.